Actually, Patty and I had a huge discussion over this and came to somewhat of an agreement. While people can go and interpret a text any way they wish (Hell, if I was creative enough, I could find communist messages in Charolettes Web), the text's true meaning is defined by the author in most cases. The text was written for a specific purpose, a meaning which the author wishes people to 'know'. Thus, every text, even the bible has one overall true message, instilled by its author. Its up to you to get it or not.
However, might I point out that humans are continually optomistic. We always believe our society is doing, for the most part, better than our past generations. Thus, as history unfolds, ideas and laws that were once 'right' become outdated. For example, the Bible gave people power once to go around and claim anyone as a heratic, in which case you would be executed for your sins. People thought it was the 'true meaning' and had right to do so through the bible. They, obviously were wrong. However, that is from our now future perspective. They would have been rioght if we lived in that era. So my question, which I hope goes unanswered yet thought over by each of you - How do we know that we are not in a 'heretic burning' stage of human history?